Viewing ads is privacy protected by DuckDuckGo.
We partner with many different information sources to deliver DuckDuckGo Search (e.g., Microsoft for ads, Apple for maps, etc.). When you view search results (including ads), your searches cannot be tied back to you, either by us or our partners. How this works technically is we do not store any personal identifiers (e.g., IP address) with your search terms, and we also proxy all requests to partners through us.
When you leave our site, you are subject to other sites’ policies, including their data collection practices. For ads from Microsoft, you also pass through Microsoft Advertising’s platform.
For more info, check out the DuckDuckGo privacy policy.
Ad clicks are managed by Microsoft’s ad network.
Microsoft and DuckDuckGo have partnered to provide a search solution that delivers relevant advertisements to you while protecting your privacy. If you click on a Microsoft-provided ad, you will be redirected to the advertiser’s landing page through Microsoft Advertising’s platform. At that point, Microsoft Advertising will use your full IP address and user-agent string so that it can properly process the ad click and charge the advertiser.
Other search engines associate your ad-click behavior with a profile on you, which can be used later to target ads to you on that search engine or around the Internet. By contrast, when you click on a Microsoft-provided ad that appears on DuckDuckGo, Microsoft Advertising does not associate your ad-click behavior with a user profile. It also does not store or share that information other than for accounting purposes.
For more info, check out the Microsoft privacy policy.
This page is composed by DuckDuckGo and Microsoft.
Prior versions on GitHub.